Sarah Kate--7 months

Sarah Kate has been busy lately! She is getting good at sitting on her own, and when she topples over, she can usually catch herself before she bops her head on the floor. (A very useful skill!) She can scoot backwards all over the room, and she is ready to go forward--she can push herself up on her hands and knees already! She is also babbling more, saying dada and baba. Here's a photo of her sitting and a video of the babbling: (I'm adding the url for the video underneath it, since some are having technical difficulties.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_qkVxPapA

Sarah Kate also has two new bottom teeth. She's enjoying all her baby foods along with those fruit and vegetable puffs that dissolve in her mouth. She will only eat them if you put them in her mouth for her. She can pick them up in her hands, but she makes no attempt to put them in her mouth. It's funny because everything else she picks up goes straight to her mouth, but not the little things she's supposed to be putting there! She will hold puffs in both hands, wave them around, and then open her mouth for you to feed her some. If you look closely at this photo, you might be able to spot her 1 1/2 teeth that were present at the time it was taken:

This month, Sarah Kate got to meet her Great-Aunt Marilyn and Great-Grandma Brewer. It was a special time! Great-Grandma had fun feeding Sarah Kate and hearing her laugh.

Here's a video of Sarah Kate's first time eating peas. She wasn't a fan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCBw-wsrGo

Thanksgiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwWxe78wWU

(I'm adding urls for the videos underneath them, since some are having technical difficulties.)

Thanksgiving was fun this year, even though illness kept us from
celebrating with Noel's family. Grandma and Grandpa were here,
and that helped make it special! Grandma and the boys made
headbands (Will called them handbands) and lists of what they
were thankful for. We ate a huge Thanksgiving feast--
Christopher was especially excited because we called it a feast--
and watched lots of football. I am thankful for a relaxing day with
our family!

We also got a new computer, and Noel and I have both had fun
playing with iMovie, as you can tell from this video, done by Noel,
and the peas video on Sarah Kate's 7 month post, done by me.
Christopher loves watching himself in thisvideo! Also, see below
the video for photos of our Thanksgiving celebration . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQN_x9DCrAs

Questions and Prayers

Christopher has been full of interesting and sometimes challenging questions lately. Here is a sampling of the questions he has asked in the last week or so:

Can God see Himself? (He decided "yes" since he learned from his catechism that nothing can be hidden from God.)

How does the tv read a disc if it doesn't have eyes or a brain?

Are you sure Mr. Tony can't hear you? (When I was yelling at Tony Romo on the tv.)

What do vitamins look like? (Not the pills, the actual vitamins.) How do the vitamins get into the oranges?

Also in the last couple of weeks, we've seen a change in Will's mealtime prayer habits. Recently, I talked with the boys about why we pray before meals. We talked about how everything we have comes from God, even our hot dogs and chips and milk. God gave Daddy the ability to do his job and make money. He gave us a place to live where there are grocery stores nearby where we can buy food. When we thank God for our food, we are acknowledging that our food and everything else we have comes from Him. Will seems to have taken that last part about "everything else" very seriously when it comes to prayer. He has changed from a rushed, "Dear God, thank you for this food, Amen" to a lengthy listing of everything he can think of (or everything he can see through squinted eyes). His lunchtime prayer yesterday went something like this:

Thank you, God, thank you for our food, and thank you for all the food that we have in this house, and thank you for our food that we eat for snack. And thank you for Mommy and Daddy and Christopher and me and Sarah Kate, and thank you for our drinks and for Sarah Kate's drinks, and for our cups and our sippy cups and our straw cups and the cups that Christopher uses. And thank you for our shoes and for our boots and our rain boots. And thank you for our clock, and thank you for the big clock that has numbers, and for the clock in the kitchen, and for ours, and for all the things that are made in this house. And thank you for Jesus, that He died on the cross for our sins, and for babies and for baby food, and thank you for Jesus, that He died on the cross for our sins, Amen.

Will the Smart Aleck

A recent occurrence in the life of a friend reminded me that I haven't talked to the boys about what to do if they get separated from me in a store. So yesterday, I had a chat with Will and laid out the scenario for him . . . you are shopping with mommy, you look up and she's gone, you are all by yourself in the store--what do you do?

Without hesitation: "I would go outside of the store and spit on the store."

What makes this even funnier to me is that the day before, Will had been disciplined for spitting on Christopher. I think he figured if no one is around, I can go spit on the store and not get in trouble!

Tonight at dinner, we were talking about addition with Christopher. Christopher was quizzing us with some challenging addition facts. This is how it went:

Christopher: What is 200 plus 200?
Mom: I don't know.
Christopher: 300!
Dad: No . . .
Will: 400!!!
(So naturally, at this point we are thinking this kid is a genius.)
Dad: Will, what is 2 plus 2?
Will: 4.
Dad: What is 1 plus 1?
Will: 4.
And that was the end of that genius moment! :)

Halloween 2009

Halloween was so fun this year . . . Christopher ran from every house screaming about what he got, and Will was only slightly nervous about the "big kids" in the scary costumes. :) After trick-or-treating with friends, the boys loved handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Then they chowed down on some candy and slept in their costumes.

Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins for the first time this year. (We meaning Noel. The one who is good with knives and all.) The boys had a blast picking them out at the pumpkin patch, and then Noel drew several sketches for them to choose from. Christopher wanted a scary monster, and Will wanted a goofy ghost. Christopher has asked everyone who has come to our house which pumpkin is scarier. Much to his dismay, a couple of people have said Will's ghost is the scariest!

Counting

As reported by Grandpa:

Will says, "I'm going to count to 20. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 . . . (pause) . . . I'm going to count to 14."